September 29, 2011

Things to tweak after installing Ubuntu 11.04

Another great article from the folks at Webupd.org

A
note before reading this post: before giving up on Unity without giving
it a try... don't. Try Unity for a few days - yes, it's not a finished
product but it's actually quite interesting - and if you don't like it
then switch.

If you've just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, there are
probably a few things you'll miss, so here is how to get them back as
well as some other things you may find useful.

Then search for CompizConfig Settings
Manager in Dash and you'll find the Unity-related options under the
"Unity" Compiz plugin. Some other options are under other plugins so
check those out too.

Using CCSM, you'll be able to tweak the Unity launcher reveal mode, hide
behavior, change some Unity-specific keyboard shortcuts, change the
Unity launcher icon size, the top panel opacity, tweak various
animations and more.

Another tool for configuring some hidden Unity settings is Dconf-editor.

To get better performance, install
CompizConfig Settings Manager (see the first tip in the post for
installing it), then open it from Dash and go to the "OpenGL" plugin and
uncheck the "Sync to VBlank" option.

Install Activity Log Manager for Zeitgeist
and on the "Files" tab blacklist the folders where you keep your
private files (porn). You can also completely disable Zeitgeist by
clicking the "Logging active" button at the bottom but no files will
show up in Dash after doing this so its better to only backlist certain
folders (or applications). You can also use this to clear the Zeitgeist
history (and thus the Dash history).

Want to monitor the RAM / CPU usage?

Yes, the Unity top panel doesn't
support any kind of applets, just AppIndicators. Luckily, there's an
AppIndicator that displays the RAM and CPU usage. Install it using the
commands below:

Sure, you can access them via Dash but
for a quicker solution, add quicklists to the Nautilus Home folder
launcher (which is displayed by default on top of the Unity launcher) by
running the following command (copy all the text as a single command!) in a terminal:

Clicking the Ubuntu logo in the top
left corner of the screen and then "More Apps" or "Find in Files" will
let you access the Unity Places Files / Applications. You can also
directly search in Dash for an application name. However, 2 more
shortcuts are placed on the launcher that serve the same purpose: Unity
Place Files / Applications:

Since vertical space is important even
on a large monitor, if you can find your way without these 2 Unity
places, you'll probably want to remove them. Here's how to do it:

- firstly make a backup of the
original files (the following commands will back them up in the
"backups" folder in your home directory):

Dash takes the whole screen size? This happens for some smaller screen laptops or netbooks.

This won't work for any computer (like
10'' netbooks) but if you have a big enough resolution (like 1366x768),
you can make Dash smaller (like in the screenshot above) by running the
following command:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity form-factor "Desktop"

In case you want to revert this change, use:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity form-factor "Automatic"

By default, to access the Software
Sources (where you can see and add repositories and PPAs) you must open
Ubuntu Software Center and only then access Software Sources.

Fix this by searching for "Main Menu" in Dash, then enable "Software Sources" under System > Administration.

Missing your favourite applet? Try finding an AppIndicator equivalent: there's a huge list on AskUbuntu and we've also posted more in-depth posts on most of them.

And of course, the "ultimate fix":
don't like Unity but want to use Ubuntu 11.04? Unity doesn't work with
your computer's hardware? You have 3 options:

- in the login screen, select the "Ubuntu Classic" session and everything will look like in Ubuntu 10.10 (except for updated packages and overlay scrollbars).

- use Unity 2D:

sudo apt-get install unity-2d

Then in the login screen, select Unity 2D instead of "Ubuntu" session.

- install GNOME 3 with GNOME Shell via GNOME 3 PPA (warning: you won't be able to use Unity after using this PPA) or if you want to use both Unity and GNOME Shell, compile it yourself (this will allow you to easily switch back to Unity if you want).

Do you know something else that needs tweaking / fixing in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal? Let us know in the comments!